The story of all stories, for curious children who want to learn while having fun.

Introduced by the words of the Italian astronomer Margherita Hack and enriched with the illustrations by Noémie Risch-Vannier, Life of an atom told by itself is the amusing autobiography of Pio Simplicius, a hydrogen atom that accompanies children on a discovery of his life and his universe.

«This booklet will intrigue its young readers, make them familiar with the concept of particles, atoms, electrons and it will thrill them so that as they grow, they will want to learn more. It is a way to bring children closer to science starting when they begin to read, and to make them understand how fun it can be to know about the world around us ». (Margherita Hack)

Find out more!

THE MAIN CHARACTER PRESENTS HIMSELF

«Hello! I am Pio Simplicius, a hydrogen atom, and what I have written for you is the most incredible of all the stories I know: the story of my life. On the other hand, who knows better than an atom about all the beautiful things that are in nature?
When I was born 13,770 billion years ago, I wasn’t really an atom, I was just a proton.  A million years passed before I was able to catch an electron and become an atom. Since then, a lot of things have happened: I joined a star, I was thrown into frozen and half-empty space and finally I landed on Earth.
Here, together with a friend of mine, another bigger atom – an oxygen atom – I formed water, until I evaporated into the atmosphere from where I could observe the continents separating. Back on Earth again, and through various vicissitudes, I was part of plants and animals, including a dinosaur!
It is really impossible to summarize everything that has happened to me to date and my many close links with other atoms, so I wrote an autobiography. And if you want to discover new and exciting secrets of nature, I recommend you read it! ».

Read some chapters from the book, which have been translated into English to facilitate your evaluation:

Discover the books in the series

Life of a tree told by itself

Discover the book Life of a tree told by itself by the same author.  The biography of a nice, attentive, curious and talkative oak tree Gina Leafy. A beautiful story and many curiosities to explore important issues such as biodiversity and climate change.

Find out more!

Life of a bee told by itself

Discover the book Life of a bee told by itself by the same author. The biography of Larissa, a friendly and courageous honey bee, accompanies children in discovering important topics such as the relationship between humans and insects, biodiversity and climate change.

Find out more!

THE AUTHOR

Luca Sciortino is a philosopher, writer and scientific popularizer. Trained as a physicist, he received his doctorate in philosophy of science from the Open University (UK).  He was a research fellow at the University of Leeds (UK) and a fellow Armenise-Harvard science writer at Harvard University (USA). He has won writing awards and published research articles in international philosophy journals such as “Erkenntnis” and the “International Journal in Philosophy of Science”.